Hang With Friends

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Come on in, pull up a chair!

Picture yourself spending some time with congenial friends, sharing your lives and pictures from your cell phones." They're curious about that cool game, song, movie, camping trip, art show, or other event that fascinated you. You talk about all kinds of stuff, poetry, styles, personal achievements, relationships, and bad days. You can share your inner child, and laugh together. They sympathetically listen to your feelings about serious topics like politics or climate change, even when they don't agree.

Personal validation comes from paying attention to one another, giving more than you get. Everyone respects you and themselves, despite our amazing range of personal tastes and interests. They'll tell you they don't agree with an idea or behavior without implying you're a bad person or somehow deficient. It's an "I'm OK, You're OK" kind of fellowship, where nobody tries to make himself look better by picking on somebody else.

Nobody here is into mind games. A discussion started with a loaded guilt-throwing question will be deleted.

This group is not intended to compete with other groups on topics they cover but to "fill in the cracks." Whenever a discussion dwells at length on a topic for which there's an existing group, we urge you to provide members a link to that group to continue along their tangent.

A comment is a shout-out, which will get lost in a few days, because the comment wall is just a random stack.

Please start a discussion to share stories, photos, and videos. Replies will pop up in your "latest activity" and a conversation can develop from the feelings and thoughts you contributed. Groups are built on discussions.

Discussion Forum

I received a gift this morning from a virtual friend, Pamela Smith:A Powerful Message from an old wise teacher :" One day an old wise teacher was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have…Continue

Apparently, Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, has been slumming. That is to say, she's been talking to Mike Pence [gasp!]. It would seem as though Mike has offered some of his not-so-personal tricks of the trade on how to be a 21st century…Continue

Honestly, the title to this piece is badly under-representative of the content. To be far more accurate, what we have here is Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, going on a rant. Before you say it ... Say WHAAAA? Betty Bowers ranting? …Continue

It seems as though lately, Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, is evolving into America's Best Patriot. She has recently been taking some fairly well-aimed shots at a certain Orange Nightmare and his sycophantic hangers-on, regarding the…Continue

Comment Wall

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Joan, for quite a long time I've been experiencing muscle weakness, especially in my knees and legs. Over the past two years I have fallen or tripped easily. I just found out this is due to a particular enzyme not being flushed out of the body by the kidneys. I've also had bouts of panic attacks and racing heart beat and hypertension. I've also had no energy and was very lethargic.

A couple of weeks ago I was ordered to the emergency room by my doctor after some lab results came back. I was having kidney failure. I also had an extremely high potassium level which was giving me an erratic heart beat. I was on the verge of having a heart attack as a result of the kidneys not getting rid of excess potassium. Lucky this was all caught in time before any of this became fatal. I was pretty close at that point.

My condition was stabilized in the hospital. Now that I'm home I am recuperating, but it will take some time. I'm still feeling very weak. Side-effects from my drugs includ horrible insomnia, shortness of breath, terrible swelling in my legs and feet and a general feeling of lethargy and lack of concentration. I also have an insatiable thirst which causes me to drink a lot which then causes me to urinate frequently.

As of today I'm at the half-way point of two months away from work. Hopefully during the next month I will continue to progress nicely as the medication side-effects start to diminish.

You are correct, Joan, this condition is mainly controlled by eating a low-sodium diet and keeping my blood pressure down

Sk8eycat, hopefully one day soon I'll be back flying over your house. However I've never flown into Burbank. We only fly into LAX and Orange County out of Chicago O'Hare. Believe me, If I flew into Burbank, I'd pick you up and take you to lunch.

Randy, what a lovely phone call to receive. A five year old boy is pure joy, inquisitive, likes to mimic grandpa, experiments with thoughts and things. You are enjoying him at a perfect age!. Another couple of years and they go into that know it all phase. Enjoy this period of development while you can.

Chris, we are in one heck of a mess in this country. The Poor, down and out people, unemployed or underemployed, begin to feel the pinch of fewer social services, fewer accesses to resources for education, and apprenticeships for employment. There is a rabble rousing influence who take to the streets now that it is legal for open carry of guns. They prance around as if the world owes them a living and they are going to shoot first.

Set that against the new militarization of the law enforcement, with heavy weapons, army like training to control the "enemy" and the "stand your ground" laws that grants immunity from prosecution if a person feels threatened and shoots a person perceived to be a threat.

We are going to see some ugly shootings with all these guns floating into hands of disgruntled people.

"The Stand Your Ground law has now been infused into the self-defense jurisprudence in Florida and elsewhere, and comes into play in countless trials. But those who avail themselves of the law’s most expansive protection may be granted immunity by a judge before trial even begins, or may not even be charged at all."

Mindy, my thoughts will be with you as you go for your upper endoscopy. Remember that worry is a useless feeling unless you have something to worry about. Thankfully, you are following up on a symptom that continues to plague you. Once you have some answers, you cant get down to the miserable work of doing what you have to do to take care of it. As I remember, you didn't get a definitive answer last time you had tests. I do hope you get a solid diagnosis and treatment plan. I will be waiting with you those three weeks until diagnosis.

Had to look up Nissen Fundoplication; Oh gracious, how many ways can a body go haywire? One article stated after the procedure to not eat solid foods for a while. Do you have a good broth recipe? If not, I have a wonderfully healthy one, either chicken or vegetable. I make it all the time and freeze quarts of it to use throughout the week, usually in sauces or for cooking potatoes or rice. But it is a wonderful healer for any kind of recovery. Let me know if you want the recipe.

I have very little experience with reflux, so can't really know what you are experiencing. Whatever it is, I hope all goes well and you have a full restoration of comfort and health.

According to the articles I read, diet plays an important part in treatment, much as diabetes.

If you are anything like I am, I go on the hunt for information as soon as I learn there is a problem. These two sites are only two of the many Googled items. Of course, remember to be a discerning reader, there is a lot of poppycock on internet sites.

Mindy, I've had lots of acid reflux most of my life, so when I went in for an upper-endoscopy, I thought they would find something, maybe even cancer, but they found nothing wrong. Hope the same for you.

Happy birthday to your husband, Mindy. Has your daughter's school started classes yet? I hope your appointment goes well tomorrow.

I was in Walgreen's the other day and the aisle with the school supplies was filled with excited kids picking our their notebooks, etc. They were very cute. When you're young, those things are so important.

On a personal note, I saw a kidney specialist yesterday and was diagnosed with stage three chronic kidney disease. So.......I'm on some medications with terrible side effects that I'm dealing with. My condition is under control for now and I will have to monitor myself closely for blood pressure and salt intake. I'm actually unable to work at this time.

Randy, I hope you enjoy the time with your grandson. It was always fun to go to my grandmother's house and play with toys that were my father's when he was young.